Global Health
Empowering hearing rehabilitation professionals in Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia
The Hearing Healthcare Alliance empowers professionals across Africa and Asia through comprehensive training programmes, improving local hearing rehabilitation services. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), approximately 430 million people worldwide require rehabilitation for disabling hearing loss [1]. This number...
ENT and audiology in the Land of a Thousand Hills
Rwanda is a beautiful country known as the ‘Land of a Thousand Hills’. It is located in the Great Rift Valley in East Africa and shares borders with Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, all offering direct...
Cochlear implantation in Tanzania: the journey and the outcomes
It is estimated that over 400 million people worldwide live with disabling hearing loss, 39.9 million of whom live in sub-Saharan Africa [1]. This article by Dr Aveline Kahinga and Mr Ali Jaffer demonstrates the effort that has been made...
#BecauseIhearIlive – an international message from Smiling Crocodile
There are 34 million children worldwide afflicted by disabling hearing loss, 60% of whom are suffering from hearing loss due to preventable causes [1]. This article is an account of the Smiling Crocodile Charity, founded in 2009 by Dagmar Herrmannová,...
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander ear health in the 2020s
The world is in the midst of a pandemic, and global health is severely threatened by this novel coronavirus which has caused over three million infections of COVID-19 and claimed more than 228,000 lives to date*. Societies and health systems...
Charitable hearing care in Pakistan: establishing the IMRA Cochlear Implant Programme and Middle Ear Project
IMRA, the International Medical Relief Agency, is a registered charity providing volunteer-delivered cochlear implant and major ear surgery to children and adults in Pakistan. Established in 2001 by UK-based ENT surgeons led by Mr Haroon Khan, its primary aim is...
Cambodian Children Surgical Centre: a junior’s perspective
The Children’s Surgical Centre (CSC) is a Non-Governmental-Organisation (NGO) hospital situated in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. CSC was developed for landmine victims over 20 years ago by Dr Jim Gollogly after the dark period under the Pol Pot...
In conversation with Robin Youngs
Members of ENT UK (The British Association of Otolaryngologists and Head and Neck Surgeons) have a long tradition of humanitarian work in countries in Africa and Asia (see article with Professor Davis Howard in previous issue for example). The ENT...
What happens to donated hearing aids?
According to the WHO, only 3% of people in developing countries who require hearing aids have one. Over the years many people, organisations and companies have donated old hearing aids to charities. Bhavisha Parmar, an audiologist who volunteered with Sound...
Preventing avoidable deafness and death from ear disease in Ethiopia
In the July/August edition of the magazine, we featured an article on humanitarian work in Ethiopia, focusing on head and neck surgery. Continuing this theme, Misha Verkerk tells us about an international collaboration providing otology care and training in that...
Cambodian Otology Fellowship report
Further to a Humanitarian News article published in the November/December 2014 issue of ENT and Audiology News (see article here), this is a report of Charlie Huins’ six-month experience as the first ENT Fellow at the Children’s Surgical Centre (CSC),...
Cambodian otology service – a fellowship with a difference
Cambodia is a country of 15 million people, still recovering from a chequered past. In the 1970s, under the Khmer Rouge, most of the medical profession, together with the rest of the educated population, was executed – the fortunate few...
